


Future Mistakes

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [59]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek, Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Bad Surprises, Brother-Sister Relationships, Crossing Timelines, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Exes, F/M, Fights, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jealous Original Female Character, Jealousy, Pregnancy, Protective Siblings, Second Chances, Teen Pregnancy, Timeline Shenanigans, Unwelcome Visitor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 13:58:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6756976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After what had already been a hard day, it just gets worse with the arrival of James's ex-girlfriend from the future, Amelia. But this time, things go a bit differently than Amelia might have planned when she confronts James about what her intentions are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future Mistakes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So this log comes on the heels of being the same evening as Khan's arrival and the estrangement of James and Livvy's parents, so the two of them aren't taking it well. And **sideofrawr** , you should know it was all I could do to keep both of the females to keep from hitting Amelia right then and there, especially after Amelia cursed him out. In my head, Zoe wanted to say something back before she knocked her out. But she refrained. You should be proud.

Suffice to say, it had been a rather crap day with the situation with his parents. James had wanted to reach out to his dad, just see if there was anything he could do or say but he had the feeling that today his dad was going to be taking advantage of his Uncle Jim’s hospitality and that magic liquor cabinet he’d wished for the match the one in the cabin. And yeah, to be honest, he probably deserved it. Having the psychopathic asshole ex of his mom’s show up and kiss her in front of everyone was probably not what he wanted to have happen today. He knew if there had been anyone like that in Zoe’s life show up, he would have tried to deck him too and then probably gone off to go drink and sulk for a while.

He just hoped his dad got his shit together quickly, to be honest.

Tonight, though, he wanted to put it behind him and concentrate on his own love life, thanks muchly. He’d arranged for Chris and Chi to come over for movies and takeout with him and Zoe at the apartment. Since Chris had stopped giving him crap about Zoe he’d been a bit less hesitant to be around him, and every once in a while he and Chris would do things with their girlfriends together. They didn’t get together often; with everyone else so busy it wasn’t frequently that they got time together.

Chi wasn’t sure when she’d be able to come by so for the moment it was just Chris, Livvy, Zoe and him. Livvy had had lunch with their mom instead of dinner so she’d been free to join them. She’d said their mom wasn’t taking things well, but she was more hopeful that this time maybe it wouldn’t last so long. Neither of them were staying at the cabin, which he had to admit was smart; it was the middle of nowhere and it wasn’t the best place to stay when there was someone who could have unfriendly intentions out there. 

They could manage to sit four on the couch, mostly because Zoe liked to sit more on his lap than the couch, so the two of them and Chris were on the couch and Livvy was on the chair. They’d ordered Chinese and were eating out of the takeout containers instead of on plates, and had settled on watching something light and comedic to get the McCoy siblings thoughts off their parent's problems. He had suggested “Man Of The House” because a funny Tommy Lee Jones was usually good for making him feel better and none of the others could remember seeing it.

They’d gotten to the point where Ranger Holt and Heather were talking about the stars when there was a knock at the door. Zoe lifted her head up. “I can go get it,” she said, starting to pull away from James.

“Nope,” James said, putting his arms around her. “Don’t move.”

Chris rolled his eyes and shook his head, but he was grinning. “You two are disgustingly sweet,” he said, getting up off the sofa. “I’ll go get it because I’m a good friend.”

“Thank you,” James said, resting his head against Zoe’s and getting comfortable again.

Chris got up and opened the door and there was silence for a moment before a distinctive female voice James had hoped he wouldn’t have to hear for a _really_ long time drifted through the air. “Hello, Chris,” he heard his deceitful lying ex-girlfriend Amelia say.

He tensed immediately and Zoe pulled away slightly, looking down at him as he clenched his jaw. “Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

“No,” he ground out.

“Is that who I think that is?” Lizzy asked, her eyes wide as she turned in her seat to look at the door. 

“Yes,” James said. “It’s her.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Lizzy said, shutting her eyes. 

“What’s going on?” Zoe asked, pulling away from James to turn to the door, where her eyes widened as she took in the very pregnant young woman standing there. “ _Oh._ ”

“Should I let her in?” Chris asked, glaring at Amelia.

“You damn well better,” Amelia said, glaring back.

“Let her in,” James said with a sigh.

Chris stepped out of the way and Amelia came into the apartment. She blinked when she got an eyeful of James and Zoe on the couch and he could see her jaw clench at that. Well, good. Let her be jealous. Let her be pissed. “You look different,” Amelia said, her voice flat.

“That’s because I’m from about three years after you pull your stunt,” James said, his voice equally devoid of emotion. “So I know the whole truth about the situation. And, as you can see, I’m not exactly mooning over you anymore.”

Her eyes widened just slightly. “I see,” she said. “So you know the baby’s not yours.”

“Yup.” He was quiet for a moment. “I still want her, though.”

“What?” came a chorus from his sister, his best friend and his ex.

“Like hell I’m going to let you have anything to do with her,” Amelia said, a sneer on her lips. “You aren’t her birth father. You have no rights.”

“Look, Amelia,” James said, easing Zoe off his lap and standing up, moving over towards her. “You know damn well weird shit has always happened to everyone in my family. I was going to leave New Orleans to get far away from it. That’s why you were going to try and trap me into the marriage. So you showing up from 2037 to 2016 shouldn’t be a surprise. So let me just tell you: if you give birth to this baby at any point during this month, I’ll make sure I get custody for however long the baby’s here and _you_ will be the one who has nothing to do with her. And trust me, I’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”

He stood a few inches taller than her, so she lifted her chin up and glared at him. “I swear, James, my father was wrong about you. You’re a bastard, you know that?”

“Coming from a scheming, conniving bitch, that isn’t much of an insult,” he said, glaring right back.

“Bakayarō!” she spat at him.

“Shinjimae!” he snapped back, his hands balling into fists. 

Amelia turned on heel and stalked back out of the apartment, and James shut his eyes and tried to take deep breaths. After a moment, he felt two arms slide around his waist and Zoe press her chest and cheek into his back. “I hate her,” Zoe murmured into his back.

James felt himself relax a bit and then turned to put his arms around her. He rested his chin on top of her head and then pressed a kiss in her hair. “It just seems everyone’s having bad luck today,” he said.

“I’d kind of hoped you wouldn’t,” she said. “You deserved not to have her show up.”

“Yeah,” he said. He held her for a long while, just relishing having her close, and then pulled away and looked at his sister and Chris. “I just kind of want to go lay down for a while and forget about things for a bit.”

“Not alone?” Livvy asked.

“Preferably not,” he said, looking at Zoe.

“I’ll let Sydney know I’m staying over tonight,” Zoe said, pulling away completely and then pulling out her cell phone.

Livvy came over to James and then put her hands on his shoulders. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

“I guess I’ll have to be,” he said. Livvy slid her arms around to give him a hug and he hugged his sister back.

“We’ll do whatever we can to make sure you get to see the baby and everything this time,” she said. “I promise.”

“I know,” he said. “I just...with everything with Mom and Dad this was the worst possible time for this.”

“Yeah, I know,” Livvy said. Then she paused for a moment. “Can I still punch that smirk off her face?”

“After she has the baby, if she has the baby here,” he said, a small smile tugging at his lips despite himself.

“Good. That’ll give me something to look forward to.” She pulled away from her brother. “I’ll figure out a way to break it to Mom and Dad and everyone else, okay? You go lay down and just...ignore it.”

“Like I can ignore it,” he said with a harsh laugh as Zoe finished sending her text. He offered her his hand and she took it and the two of them headed off towards his room. He made his way to his bed, not even bothering to pull back the blankets and sheets, just laying down on top of everything. Zoe went around to the other side and then got on the bed, moving over next to him in what had more or less become her spot. 

He realized then that even in the incredibly short time that he and Zoe had actually been dating, he’d spent more time sleeping next to her than he ever had Amelia. She’d always kept him at arms length, except the night she seduced him to make it look like he’d knocked her up and one more night when he’d started having doubts about whether they should get married. She’d always said it was “disrespectful” for them to share a bed before marriage, and as she knew he respected her father he would want to honor the man. And he had respected Hiroaki Inoue very much. Even now, he respected him far more for what he did _after_ the baby was born, for what he severed from his life. That man was a better man than his harlot of a daughter would ever realize.

“Hey,” Zoe said, reaching over to touch his face. He turned to look over at her. “Do you want to talk? Or just kind of lie here and be quiet?”

He moved his hand and ran it along her arm. Despite what he’d said on the boards, he knew the whole story of what happened. He knew Amelia was alive and off...somewhere. He knew she had gotten what she’d wanted: she was rich, she was child-free and she’d hurt him. But it had cost her a lot. It cost her her family, it had cost her being able to return to New Orleans with threat of...well, probably death, if Emalyn had had her dad had any say in the matter, he thought, and it cost her basic human decency. But he _really_ didn’t want to think about it. After a moment he moved his hand to Zoe’s face, trailing his fingers along her cheek. “I just think I’d like to kiss you for a while,” he said quietly. “Then maybe get some sleep.”

She nodded, then scooted up and let her lips hover over his for a moment. “Okay,” she said before kissing him softly. He let his fingers move into her hair and then cup the back of her head as he kissed her back, trying to will himself to forget about things for tonight, but somehow he had the feeling that come morning, at least for a little while, Zoe would be in bed alone while he went for a run to figure out just what the hell he was going to do because his life was about to go to hell all over again.


End file.
